The New Right, Vox writer Zach Beauchamp says (here), is “a loose grouping of conservative thinkers who advocate aggressively wielding state power to promote a more conservative culture.” One of their apostles is Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has presidential ambitions. He has aggressiv[...]
Posts Tagged ‘Democracy’
What U.S. Civil War 2.0 would be like
Not at all like the 1861-1865 conflict, but potentially just as destructive and bloody. We don’t have to guess how it would play out; Prof. Barbara F. Walter (profile here), who studies political violence, points out that “far-right groups such as the Proud Boys have told us how they pl[...]
September 8th, 2022 - 10:18 pm § in Donald Trump, Politics
Donald Trump, King of America
The Queen is dead. God save the Queen. Now Charles is king. Trump, trying to grab the spotlight as always, predicted (who cares?) that “King Charles III, who I have gotten to know well, will be a great and wonderful king.” (See story here.) That remains to be seen; the first King Charles[...]
Will Trump go to prison?
Trump lied about election fraud, but that’s not a crime, it’s free speech. And while he’s engaged in shady business practices and dodged taxes, many Americans don’t see those actions as real crimes, just “smart business” — and hating paying taxes as much as [...]
June 6th, 2022 - 2:18 pm § in Politics
Representative democracy in Texas, mass shootings edition
In a representative democracy, you elect someone to represent you. Not in Texas. Following the 2019 mass shootings in El Paso and Santa Fe, and the 2022 school massacre in Uvalde, the GOP-controlled legislature has decided to study gun violence. The lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick, has appointed a [...]
Still think conservatives believe in “freedom”?
The U.S. Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) is meeting in Hungary, whose strongman is teaching them how to seize power. Read stories here and here Conservatives don’t like social change and want to preserve a way of life they’re comfortable with. But they’re a voting minority, and[...]
GOP senators were briefed on Jan. 4 about plans to overturn election
The House committee investigating the January 6 insurrection has learned that GOP senators were briefed 2 days earlier on White House plans to overturn the election by declaring a national emergency, the Guardian reported on Saturday, December 11, 2021 (story here). That information is in a PowerPoi[...]
January 13th, 2020 - 1:17 am § in America
IS Iran a Democracy? Is the US?
Is the US losing it own claim to be a democracy? Our current ruling party will renominate Donald Trump this year without ever holding a popular election. The Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khameini, is the head of a council, more or less like the Pope and his cardinals. Why disparage one and not [...]
January 11th, 2019 - 10:25 pm § in Politics
A Cuban View of America
The United States is an oligarchy, not a democracy The country that presents itself as a universal model of democracy does not meet the basic standards of a system in which the majority makes decisions[...]
CHINA vs the US: Is Corporate China the End of History?